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Posts by Varsovian  

Joined: 23 Nov 2006 / Male ♂ 		Last Post: 22 Feb 2016
Threads: Total: 91 / In This Archive: 78
Posts: Total: 634 / In This Archive: 433 		From: Warsaw

Displayed posts: 511 / page 3 of 18
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Varsovian   
14 May 2013
Life / First communion - it's that time of year again in Poland! [109]

Imagine the scene: 2025. June. Delph's daughter walks down the aisle with the man of her dreams. The church is half-full ... as only HIS relations turn up.

Rage away all you like Delphy, you won't beat the entire world and you'll miss out on a whole load of fun. But you'll have made your point, won't you?
Varsovian   
14 May 2013
Life / First communion - it's that time of year again in Poland! [109]

Delph can rage against the machine - that's her choice. Whether any of her relations will turn up to the christenings/first communions/weddings she invites them too is another matter. As for the Church, well. All the running is done by society on this one, so ...

The granny was quite a good-looking one, as far as grannies go. Late 50s, good figure, smelt good, weighed 62kg but not exactly my cup of tea. Worth it, just to see the looks of horror as this much-feared MOTHER-IN-LAW of my wife's sister ended up on my lap. The stuff of family folklore already. The tigress turned out to be a kitten :)
Varsovian   
14 May 2013
Life / First communion - it's that time of year again in Poland! [109]

PLN 300 is the going rate for guests, PLN 1000-1500 for godparents.

I went to 2 last weekend - one was a home do, all catering done by the family. Really tiring for the organizers, better for the guests. It's so much more enjoyable in a home with a garden.

The second one, the day after, was in a restaurant. It cost PLN 8000 to organize (I think about PLN 130 per head, but don't quote me on that). The parents had it easier, the guests had less fun though.

Most importantly, the kids were the centre of attention for the first part of the day and everyone behaved themselves (though I got necked by a granny sat on my lap - how did that happen??)
Varsovian   
5 Apr 2013
Love / Have been living with my Polish girlfriend. Moving the relationship forward, what now? [18]

The thing is that life is tough and certain things like ageing can't be avoided. I'm really happy my kids got to know my father quite well before he died. My mother, who died much earlier, is simply an unknown quantity for them. She never saw them, and I think that's sad.

I think grandparents play a really important role, as do other older relatives (and older friends if like me you're lucky enough to cross the generational divide). By seeing dad put in his place by people who knew him as a child, and him having to show a bit of respect, kids see they are part of something bigger.

I think 'liberals' secretly think grandparents are a threat - which could be called control freakery ...
Varsovian   
5 Apr 2013
Love / Have been living with my Polish girlfriend. Moving the relationship forward, what now? [18]

Look, for what it's worth, "liberals" can't do arithmetic!

Say you're 25 now and have a kid when you're 27, you're responsible for him/her on average until s/he's 26. That'll make you 53, with half of your balding head covered in grey hair. Look around you - most families have 2 kids. You too might have a brother/sister. So that gives you kid no. 2 when you're 29. If there are no problems. So, you'll be free of the little darlings when you're 55. When your grey hair starts turning white.

Teachers have problems nowadays trying to tell parents and grandparents apart.

React to this as you will - either do the decent thing and start adult life [gulp, the responsibility] or act like a teenager for a few more years! The choice is yours.

By the way, a childhood friend recently lost the mother of his children to cancer aged 42. She always dreamt of getting married, but he wouldn't do it, even as the end neared.
Varsovian   
13 Mar 2013
Polonia / BRAZILIAN POLISH PEOPLE [21]

I was hungover one morning in Leeds and heard 2 Brazilians chatting away behind me in the bus. Semi-comatose, I turned round and asked one, "Czy Pani mówi po polsku?" And yes, she did. Somehow, I'd heard a faint echo of a Polish accent in her Portuguese - God knows how. Polish father, it turned out.
Varsovian   
1 Mar 2013
Law / Divorce in Poland - fault - rights to property predating the marriage [34]

A technical subject. Detailed knowledge of Polish law required.

Man owns property before marriage.

Man marries and has 2 children with his wife.

Husband cheats on wife and has a child with another woman (at the same time as his wife miscarries).

Wife's claim to the property? Does she have any?
Varsovian   
31 Jan 2013
News / Polish Business Centre Club hammers another nail in Blair's coffin [35]

I was going out with a miner's daughter in 1984, so my views were coloured somewhat.
But although she was far from squeeky clean, Blair's govt reeked of corruption and bankrupted the country to a degree that would have impressed Harold Wilson.
Varsovian   
30 Jan 2013
News / Polish Business Centre Club hammers another nail in Blair's coffin [35]

I'm frankly appalled that jon357 and Wroclaw Boy have stooped so low. Truly, it gets no worse.

Apart from blood on his hands - the blood of hundreds of thousands of innocents, that is - he bankrupted the UK. So, I can see that jon357 and Wroclaw Boy reject all concept of the most basic human right - the right to life. He launched an illegal invasion of a sovereign country - Iraq - without any grounds whatsoever, other than might is right.

An astonishingly vile man, Blair.

And he massively abused the public finance initiative, giving his fat cat friends in the city loads of money while screwing public services. Try looking up Pinderfields Hospital, Jon. Your home town. My sister-in-law has to work in that PFI monstrosity that will be crippled with debt for decades.
Varsovian   
25 Jan 2013
News / Man taken to court for abusing Poland's president [35]

Jon357 always has to bring up something to defend his idols in Platforma.
Errrm - a point of information: it's the law wot's guilty here. However, the orders to make arrests like this come from the politicians.
Varsovian   
10 Jan 2013
History / Should we glorify Polish secondary female characters from history? [36]

Queens, as monarchs, obviously get their fair share of coverage in historical studies.

Should Poland discover more Marie Curies, to advance the cause of wimmin's rights?

When I was a kid, Florence Nightingale was done in a lesson, but that was about it. We didn't cover Winston Churchill at all. Nowadays in England, you can scarcely set foot in a school without knowing copious amounts about a mixed-race boarding house keeper called Mary Seacole, who served good food and drink in the Crimea and helped out occasionally with the wounded. Doubtless, a decent enough women - Florence Nightingale gave her some money when she fell on hard times - but ...

Famous Polish women to glorify - errm ... Ewa Kłobukowska?
Varsovian   
31 Dec 2012
Real Estate / Buying a farm in Poland [14]

You would get an EU subsidy though - my wife does.
Also - find out what class of land it is, as this opens up / closes off some sorts of production if you want to be a bit more daring in your choice of crop.
Varsovian   
28 Dec 2012
News / Today's release of UK govt papers under the 30 year rule - JPII and the US look bad [18]

I must admit I'd forgotten that his trip to the UK in 1982 was very nearly cancelled due to this opposition to Britain's response to the Argentine invasion. He probably feared a Communist takeover in Argentina if they lost. Realpolitik. However, he couldn't resist an historic trip to England - where Catholics had acted for so long as an Al-Qaeda grouping. The RC church has been ranting like an enraged child for centuries because the weakling Pope Clement VII was unable to grant a divorce for military reasons.

It's sounds strange now, but before that trip I hadn't actually realised the Catholics were still going in England!

Incidentally, I didn't know until today that the Americans planned to tip the Argentinians off about British plans to re-take South Georgia. Astonishing duplicity. History still makes your jaw drop sometimes.
Varsovian   
28 Dec 2012
News / WOSP Poland charity - is it value for money? [60]

Thanks.
72% isn't bad at all, for example Caritas Australia manages 78%

Another question - I hear from medical staff that the equipment is loaned, not donated. Do you know anything about this? If it's loaned, this would throw up other issues.
Varsovian   
28 Dec 2012
News / WOSP Poland charity - is it value for money? [60]

Please!
Does someone have some facts? I mean numbers.
In the UK charities declare what percentage of their revenue goes on admin and costs etc
You lot seem to be entirely uninformed - how depressing!

(Who's Maybach?)
Varsovian   
28 Dec 2012
News / Failures of Poland and Tusk`s government [191]

EDF - doesn't Gordon Brown's brother work for them? Wasn't he working for them when Labour was surreptitiously helping them into the market?
Varsovian   
28 Dec 2012
News / WOSP Poland charity - is it value for money? [60]

I hear worrying things about poor value for money, the charity's founder employing relatives and using the whole thing for self-promotion, money from the charity going towards funding a festival.

Surely not.

Can anybody fill me in on this?

I'm interested in stuff like: what % of revenue goes to real charitable causes (e.g. a pop concert isn't one in my books) and is the medical equipment bought and donated to hospitals or are there any shananigans involved?

And the first person to bring politics into this is an idiot! I want some facts here, not tribal chanting.
Varsovian   
7 Dec 2012
News / Poland blocks any action on climate change [569]

If Methuselah were born today, he'd be a very old man before he'd be able to tell anyone if anthropogenic climate change was happening.

I would far prefer the billions of euros being spent on useless schemes (e.g. wind and solar in Europe) to be spent on saving lives NOW.

Why should people still die miserable, preventable deaths in their millions, while the Danny Cohn-Bendits of this world go round screaming about their own importance? Again.

Clean water, concrete floors (not dirt), medicines ...